WThe area around Constantinople was affected by a major earthquake in 447. It caused serious damage to the recently completed Theodosian Walls in Constantinople, destroying 57 towers and large stretches of the walls. The historical records contain no mention of casualties associated directly with this earthquake, although many thousands of people were reported to have died in the aftermath due to starvation and a "noxious smell".
WThe Cistern of Aspar or Great Cistern, known in Turkish as Sultan Selim Çukurbostanı, was a Byzantine open-air water reservoir in the city of Constantinople.
WThe Bir el Qutt inscriptions are the Old Georgian Byzantine mosaic inscriptions written in the Georgian Asomtavruli script which were excavated at a St. Theodore Georgian monastery in 1952 by Italian archaeologist Virgilio Canio Corbo near Bir el Qutt, in the Judaean Desert, 6 km south-east of Jerusalem and 2 km north of Bethlehem. The whole complex was built of reddish limestone.
WThe Roman province of Egypt was established in 30 BC after Octavian defeated his rival Mark Antony, deposed Pharaoh Cleopatra, and annexed the Ptolemaic Kingdom to the Roman Empire. The province encompassed most of modern-day Egypt except for the Sinai Peninsula, which would later be conquered by Trajan. Aegyptus was bordered by the provinces of Crete and Cyrenaica to the west and Judea to the East.
WThe Eastern Roman Empire was ruled by the House of Leo from AD 457, the accession of Leo I, to 518, the death of Anastasius I. The rule of the Leonid dynasty coincided with the rapid decline, collapse and eventual fall of the Western Roman Empire. Following the end of the Western Empire, Emperor Zeno abolished the position of Western Roman Emperor and declared himself the sole Roman Emperor. The Eastern Roman Empire would come to last for several more centuries, and subsequent dynasties would invest large amounts of resources in attempts to retake the western provinces.
WThe Eastern Roman Empire was ruled by the Theodosian dynasty from 379, the accession of Theodosius I, to 457, the death of Marcian. The rule of the Theodosian dynasty saw the final East-West division of the Roman Empire, between Arcadius and Honorius in 395. Whilst divisions of the Roman Empire had occurred before, the Empire would never again be fully reunited. The reign of the sons of Theodosius I contributed heavily to the crisis that under the fifth century eventually resulted in the complete collapse of Roman control in the West.
WThe East Roman–Sassanid War of 440 was a short conflict between the East Roman Empire and the Sassanian Empire. The reason for its short ending was that the southern Roman provinces were being invaded by the Vandals, which forced the East Romans to sue for a quick end to the war to focus on the Vandal invasion. The Sasanians were also paid some money in return for peace.
WThis history of the Byzantine Empire covers the history of the Eastern Roman Empire from late antiquity until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD. Several events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the transitional period during which the Roman Empire's east and west divided. In 285, the emperor Diocletian partitioned the Roman Empire's administration into eastern and western halves. Between 324 and 330, Constantine I transferred the main capital from Rome to Byzantium, later known as Constantinople and Nova Roma. Under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empire's official state religion and others such as Roman polytheism were proscribed. And finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empire's military and administration were restructured and adopted Greek for official use instead of Latin. Thus, although it continued the Roman state and maintained Roman state traditions, modern historians distinguish Byzantium from ancient Rome insofar as it was oriented towards Greek rather than Latin culture, and characterised by Orthodox Christianity rather than Roman polytheism.
WThe praetorian prefecture of the East, or of the Orient was one of four large praetorian prefectures into which the Late Roman Empire was divided. As it comprised the larger part of the Eastern Roman Empire, and its seat was at Constantinople, the praetorian prefect was the second most powerful man in the East, after the Emperor, in essence serving as his first minister.
WGaiseric, also known as Geiseric or Genseric was King of the Vandals and Alans (428–477), a kingdom he established, and was one of the key players in the difficulties faced by the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century. Through his nearly 50 years of rule, he raised a relatively insignificant Germanic tribe to the status of a major Mediterranean power. His most famous exploit, however, was the capture and plundering of Rome in June 455. He also defeated two major efforts by the Romans to overthrow him, the first one by the emperor Majorian in 460 or 461, and another by Basiliscus at the Battle of Cape Bon in 468. After dying in Carthage, Gaiseric was succeeded by his son Huneric.
WThe praetorian prefecture of Italy was one of four Praetorian prefectures into which the Late Roman Empire was divided. It comprised the Italian peninsula, the Western Balkans, the Danubian provinces and parts of North Africa. The Prefecture's seat moved from Rome to Milan and finally, Ravenna.
WThe Leonid dynasty produced produced five Roman emperors during Late Antiquity, reigning over the Roman Empire from 457 to 518. The dynasty's patriarch was Leo I, who was made Roman emperor in 457. Leo's daughter Ariadne became empress and mother to an emperor, and her two husbands were themselves each made emperor in turn. Another relative whose name does not survive of Leo I or his wife Verina married the future augustus Julius Nepos, the last emperor in the western Roman Empire. The dynasty of Leo succeeded the preceding Valentinianic dynasty and Theodosian dynasty whose family trees were conjoined and ruled concurrently. Besides Julius Nepos, who administered no more than a rump state the Roman province of Dalmatia in the western empire during the fall of the west, the dynasty's emperors governed the eastern empire.
WThe Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae is an ancient "regionary", i.e., a list of monuments, public buildings and civil officials in Constantinople during the mid-5th century, during the reign of the emperor Theodosius II. The text lists the fourteen regions in which Constantinople was divided, along with the major public buildings such as fora, theatres, churches, palaces, baths and cisterns. It also lists the number of "houses" (domus), although there is uncertainty over the exact meaning of the term. Finally, the list includes the civil officials of each region, including the curators, the heads of the associations (collegia) and the heads of neighbourhoods (vicomagistri).
WPalæstina Prima or Palaestina I was a Byzantine province from 390, until the 7th century. It was lost to the Sassanid Empire in 614, but was re-annexed in 628, before its final loss during the Muslim conquest of the Levant in 636.
WPalæstina Secunda or Palaestina II was a Byzantine province from 390, until its conquest by the Muslim armies in 634–636. Palaestina Secunda, a part of the Diocese of the East, roughly comprised the Galilee, Yizrael Valley, Bet Shean Valley and southern part of the Golan plateau, with its capital in Scythopolis. The province experienced the rise of Christianity under the Byzantines, but was also a thriving center of Judaism, after the Jews had been driven out of Judea by the Romans in the 1st and 2nd centuries.
WThe praetorian prefecture of Illyricum was one of four praetorian prefectures into which the Late Roman Empire was divided.
WThe Samaritan revolts were a series of insurrections during the 5th and 6th centuries in Palaestina Prima province, launched by the Samaritans against the Byzantine Empire. The revolts were marked by great violence on both sides, and their brutal suppression at the hands of the Byzantines and their Ghassanid allies severely reduced the Samaritan population. The events irreversibly shifted the demographics of the region, making the Christians the only dominant group in the Palaestina Prima province for many decades onward.